Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-11-23

NOs Liz
throned Alfred Cookmani Tell me from
the skies, were you converted too early P
But I cannot hear his answer. 1t is over
powered by the buxzes of the tens Of thou
sands who were brought to God through hi
ministry. Isaac Watts, the Christian poet
was converted at nine years of age. Rober
Hail. the great Baptist evangelist, was con
verted at twelve years of age. Jonathan
Edwards, the greatest of American logi
clans, was converted at seven years of age
Oh for one generation of holy men and
women. Shall it be the next? Fathers
and mothers, you under God are to decide
whether from your families shall 60 forth
towards, inebriates, counterfeiters, bias.
phemers, and whether there shall be those
bearing your image and carrying your name
| fostering in the low haunts of vice and
| |foundering in dissipation, and making the
midnight of their lives horrid with long
howl of ruin, Or whether from your family
affairs shall come tho Christians, the re-
formers, the teachers, the ministers of
Christ, the comforters of the troubled, the
healers of the sick, the enactors of good
laws, the founders of charitable institu-
tions, and great many who shall in the
humber spheres of toll and usefulness serve
God and the best interests of the human
race.
You cannot as parents shirk the respon-
sibllity. God has charged you with mis-
sion, and all the thrones Of heaven are
awaiting to see whether you will do your
duty. We must not forget that it Is not
so much what we teach our children a.
what we are in their presence. We wish
them to be better than we are, but the prob
ability is that they will only be reproduc-
tions of our own character. German liter
ature has much to say of the 'spectre Of
Brocken." Among those mountains travel
lers, in certain conditions of the atmos-
phere. see themselves copied on gigantic
scale in the clouds. At first the travellers
do not realize that it is themselves on .
larger scale. When they lift q hand or
move the head this monster spectre does
the same, and with such enlargement of
proportions that the scene is most exciting,
and thousands have gone to that place just
to behold the spectre Of Brocken. The
probability is that some of our faults which
we consider small and insignificant, if We
do not put an end to them, will be copied
on a larger scale in the lives Of our chill
dren, and perhaps dilated and exaggerated
into spectral proportions. You need not go
as far off as the Brocken to see that process.
The first thing in importance in the educa-
tion of our children is to make ourselves,
by the grace of God, fit examples to be
copied. The day will Dme when you
must confront that child, not in the
church pew on a calm Sabbath, but
amid the CONSERVATION of the rising
dead, and the flying heavens, and burn
ing world. From your side the son or
daughter, bone of your bone, heart Of your
heart, the fathers brow his brow, the
mothers eye his eye, shall 20 forth to an
eternal destiny. What will be your Joy if
at last you hear their feet in the same gold
en- highway and hear their voices in the
same rapturous song, illustrions, while the
eternal ages last. of what faithful parent
could, under God, accomplish. was read
ing of a mother who, dying, had all her
children about her, and took each one of
them by the hand, and asked them to meet
her in heaven, and with tears aud sobs such
as those only know who have stood by the
deathbed of good old mother, they all
promised. But there was q yonng man of
nineteen who had been very wild and reck-
less and hard and proud, and when she
took his hand she said: "Now, my boy,
want you to promise me before l die that
you will become Christian and meet me
in heaven" The young man made no
answer, for there was SO much for him to
give up if he made and kept such pro-
mise. But the aged mother persisted in
saying: "You won't deny me that before
60, will you? This parting must not be
forever. Tell me now you will serve God
aud meet me in the land where there is no
parting" Quaking with emotion he stood,
mxking up his mind and halting and hest
tatng, but at last his stubborpness yielded,
and he threw his arms around his mothers
neck and said, eyes, mother; I will,
will" And as he finished the last word of
his promise her spirit assembled. thank
G I'd the young man kept his PROMISE
Yes, he kept it. May God give all mothers
and fathers the gladness of their children's
salvation.
For all who are trying to do their duty
as parents quote the tremendous pas
sage: "Train up a child in the way in
which be should 60, and when he is old he
will not depart from it." II through good
discipline and prayer and godly example
you are acting upon that child you have
the right to expect him to grow up virtu-
GUS. And how many tears Of joy you will
shed when you see your child honorable and
just and truthful and Christian and sue
cessful-a holy man amid world Of dis
honesty, godly woman in world Of fIiv-
olous pretension. When you come to die
they will gather to bless your last hours
They will push back the white locks on
your cold forehead and say: "What good
father he always was to msp' They will
fold your hands peacefully and say: ''Dear
mother She is gone. Her troubles are
all over. Don't she look beautiful ?"